【推荐1】I went to the beach nearby and noticed kids joyfully playing in the water, boating, and building sandcastles. Suddenly, I noticed a girl _________ by herself, maybe around 8 or 9. She built a little sandcastle with a _________ around it and was now _________ to fill the canal(沟渠) with water.

_________ , there was no container around to carry water. She would go to the waves, _________ her hands and then walk back to her little castle. _________ not much of the water was _________ it to the channel. But she _________ trying. I wished I could help her out, but I didn’t have a(n) _________ with me.

Later, I __________ that I had a bottle of water in my bag that I had completely __________ about. I quickly dug in, took it out, and walked over to __________ it to her.

She was __________ at first, but she smiled. She shook her head shyly, saying no. I told her that it would make getting the water much __________. Finally she took it after I __________. Not wanting her to feel self-conscious, I walked off the __________ right away, looking back to see her __________ over to the sea with a big smile, equipped with a bottle in hand.

It was a tiny __________ . But in my heart, I know that when she notices that someone needs help in her life, maybe, she would recall this __________ by a stranger. And maybe that would make her more likely to __________ and help create a little gentler world around her.

【推荐2】When I was thirteen, my family moved from Boston to Tucson, Arizona. _______the move, my father_______us in the living­room on a freezing January night. My sisters and I sat around the fire, not_______that the universe would suddenly change its course. “In May, we're_______to Arizona.”

The words, so small, didn't seem_______enough to hold my new life. But the world changed and I awoke on a train moving across the country. I watched the_______change from green trees to flat dusty plains to high mountains as I saw strange new plants that_______mysteries yet to come. Finally, we arrived and_______into our new home.

While my older sisters were_______at the loss of friends, I________explored our new surroundings.

One afternoon, I was out exploring________and saw a new kind of cactus (仙人掌). I crouched (蹲) down for a closer look. “You'd better not________that.”

“Are you new to this neighborhood?” I explained that I was, ________, new to the entire state.

“My name is Ina Thorne. Have you got used to life in the________? It must be quite a________after living in Boston.”

How could I explain how I________the desert? I couldn't seem to find the right words.

“It's vastness,” she offered. “That vastness when you ________on the mountains overlooking the desert—you can________how little you are in comparison with the world.________, you feel that the possibilities are limitless.”

That was it. That was the feeling I'd had ever since I'd first seen the mountains of my new home. Again, my________would change with just a few simple words.

“Would you like to come to my home tomorrow? Someone should teach you which plant you should and shouldn't touch.”

Atdhe Trepca had long been interested in film-making,_______ he did an internship (实习) at Warner Bros. Studio where he _______ experts in the field. There was a French documentary (纪录片) which actually _______ his latest project. “I thought it’d be really _______ to start conversations with strangers like the documentary by asking them the _______ question: Are you happy?” Trepca says.

He started his journey to_______ his conversations with strangers in February 2019. “I brought with me lots of _______ about every person I _______,” he says. “And now I realize that this question really serves as a _______ to the soul. Because when you approach a stranger with that question, all their ____________ stories come to the forefront and they start ____________ something that they’ve done. One of the purposes of making these videos is to give people a chance to ____________ themselves.”

Although these videos seem to show stories worthy of ____________ that they receive on social media, Trepca believes that everyone’s story is also worthy of the same respect. “My videos are basically endless, because I ____________ believe that everyone has a story.”   Besides, he finds that even the happiest people haven’t had the most ____________ lives. “Even if we are faced with difficult times, we can hold a positive attitude to our lives,” Trepca says.

【推荐2】Reaching Impossible Heights

Xia, 69, reached the peak of Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain in the world on May 14th , 2018. What’s remarkable, however, is that Xia has no _______ of his own.

Xia was chosen by the Chinese mountaineering team in 1974 and together with his teammates, Xia _______ Mount   Qomolangma   in   1975.   However,   he   and   some   of   his   teammates were _______ in a snowstorm just 200 meters below the peak and were forced to   go down the hill. Eventually, nine climbers reached the top, but Xia _______ severe freezing cold and lost both his feet. After that, he became a double amputee.

He heard the news of his teammates’ _______ on the radio as he lay in bed in hospital     awaiting the operation. “I was proud of my teammates but _______ because I was not among them. I didn’t dare to imagine my _______ of sitting in a wheelchair, perhaps forever,” he said.

He felt _______ for a long time until a doctor told him that on artificial legs, he could        live life like anyone else, and might even do quite a lot of physical exercise. His hopes were _______ and he set a target: he would climb Qomolangma. The vision of the _______ came close to him. It gave him the courage and hope to _______.

He failed to reach the 8,844-meter peak four times. Although it took Xia more than 40 years to realize his _______ , he stayed less than 10 minutes at the top because of a storm.       Facing into the wind, he _______ his body to carry on down the mountain, knowing that the _______ had only just begun. His artificial legs had   no feeling. Low temperatures and the burden of hiking caused his legs to swell, so that the artificial legs didn’t _______ as they       should. He uses twice as much _______ as fully-able mountaineers. Many times, his feet got _______ in cracks in the ice and his teammates had to help pull his legs out. Then there was       the snow. His   glasses   were   covered   with   a   layer   of _______.   “Everything   was   white.   I couldn’t see clearly. The only thing I could do was to hold tight to the rope and keep moving on,” he recalled. It took Xia two days to _______ to the base camp, more than 3,000 meters     below.

His _______ is beyond most   people’s   imagination.   When   he   was   reported   to   have conquered Qomolangma, he replied, “It is Qomolangma that accepts me. Nature cannot be conquered, but people can.”

【推荐3】It was Mother’s Day and I was shopping at the local supermarket with my five-year-old son, Tenyson. As we were ___，we realized that only minutes earlier an _______ woman had fallen over at the entrance and hit her head on the ground. _______was with her, but there was blood everywhere and the woman was embarrassed and clearly in shock. _____，a lot of people stopped to help out.

_____we were walking towards the scene, Tenyson became very ______about what had happened to the elderly people. He ______to me,“Mom, it’s not much fun falling over in front of ______." Seeing that there was a flower stall（摊位）in the front of the supermarket, he added, "Why shouldn’t we ______   the lady a flower? It will make her feel better." I was ______that he’d come up with this _______   idea. So we went over and told the flower seller ______ we wanted. "Just take it,”she replied. "I _______ take your money for such a wonderful ______.”

By now medical staff had arrived, and were ______ the injured woman. We gave the flower to the woman’s husband and I told him it was ______my son. At that, the old man started crying and said, "Thank you very much." He then turned to me, “You have a ______ son. Happy Mother’s Day to you."

The man bent down and gave his wife the flower, telling her who it was from. ______being badly hurt, the old lady looked up at Tenyson with _______ in her eyes and gave him a little ________.

【推荐1】Mr. Glen is a millionaire. Years ago, after returning from abroad to his motherland, he set up his company. Speaking of success, Glen often tells us a story about his extra _________ “school” fee. He always owes his success to it.

At that time, Glen, who already got a Ph.D. degree, _________ to return home, starting a company. Before leaving, he bought a Rolex watch with the _________ made through years. At the airport he had to accept the routine customs check. The watch on his wrist was also required to be taken down for _________. Glen knew that carrying such goods out had to pay the tax, and he worried about paying it for his watch. So while checked, he told a lie that his watch was a _________ fake. When he was proud of his “smarts”, immediately, in the _________ of Glen, the officers hit the watch, which cost nearly 100,000, into pieces _________ hearing Glen's words. Glen was _________. Before he understood why, he was taken to the office to be examined _________. For many times of entry-exit __________ he knew that only those people in the “blacklist” would “enjoy” this special treatment. The officers looked over everything carefully, and __________ him no matter what time of entry and exit he must accept the check and if __________ reusing and carrying fake goods, he would be __________ by law! Suddenly, his face turned red, and he had nothing in mind after boarding the plane for long.

After that, he often told the story to his family and his employees. He said that this made a deep __________ on him, because the additional high “school” fee that he had ever paid made him realize the value of __________, which he would remember as the secret of his success forever.

【推荐3】I recently gave up driving. I passed my test last year, but I stopped _________ when I turned 90. I thought that it was finally the right time.

Needless to say, my family was relieved(放心的)—they didn’t have to have “that talk” with me. My doctor was relieved too. _________ diagnosing(诊断)a serious illness, taking away a senior’s driving license is probably one of the hardest things to do. I knew I couldn’t move as well as I used to, _________ my vision was getting worse. It hurt to _________ my head when backing up the car, and, after lengthy shopping trips, I was very _________.

As I handed over the keys of the car to my son, I thought of all the cars my wife and I had owned over the years. A _________ is freedom, independence, and an extension of your personality. _________ one, you feel like less of a person.

I have a son who lives close by and we shop together at least once a week. My neighbors also offer me _________, but the idea of being dependent on other people after a lifetime of independence is hard to _________.

I’ve learned to __________. With my own car, I could go anywhere at a moment’s notice. But now, my life is different and I must __________ ahead for everything. No more going out for milk or bread or last-minute afternoon drives.

However, I found a solution to some of those __________. Last year, I decided to buy a nice new four-wheel electric scooter. At a top speed of 12 km/h, it takes 20 minutes to get from my house to the store. But now, my route is __________ from traffic and noise, with trees and greenery __________ cars and street signs.

Giving up driving is hard, and some of us never __________ the loss. For me, however, it was just the end result of a long and lucky life. Life in the slow lane(车道)turned out to be so much fun.